Our data digest column breaks down the latest data, research and financial results into digestible chunks.
Read on for the numbers you need to know about minus the fluff.
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Solitaire Grand Harvest hits $1bn
Playtika’s Solitaire Grand Harvest has surpassed $1bn in lifetime revenue, according to data from Appmagic. The game has been downloaded 69m times since its release in 2017, and has a global RPD of $14.55.
The game held a 67% share of the Solitaire TriPeaks market in 2024, and its lifetime revenue is 75% higher than that of its nearest competitor, Tiki Solitaire TriPeaks ($575m).
The next largest Solitaire TriPeaks games by lifetime revenue are Fairway Solitaire – Card Game ($96m) and Solitaire Cruise TriPeaks Game ($83m).
Rovio accounts for 13% of Sega’s Q3 game sales
Sega Sammy’s game division saw Q3 revenues fall 2.1% year-over-year to ¥69.2bn ($455m) for the three months ended December 31 2024.
Rovio generated sales of ¥8.8bn ($57.8m) during Q3, down 8.3% YoY, and accounted for 12.7% of the division’s total.
The Angry Birds maker is expected to contribute ¥34.7bn ($228m) in sales during the current fiscal year, which is 16% of the wider game division’s projected ¥216.5bn ($1.42bn) total.
Sega also said Sonic Rumble remains on track to launch globally this winter for iOS, Android and PC.
Roblox shares fell 11% after missing forecasts
Roblox stock recorded its worst day since May 2024 after the platform missed Wall Street’s bookings and daily active user forecasts, CNBC reports.
Its shares dived 11.1% after it reported bookings of $1.36bn and daily active users at 85.3m for the fourth quarter ended on December 31 2024.
These figures were actually up 21% and 19% YoY, respectively, but they missed outside estimates of $1.37bn and DAU of 88.2m. Bookings for the full year came in at $4.37bn, which was up 24% YoY. The company expects bookings to range from $5.2bn to $5.3bn for 2025.
Krafton revenue rockets 41%
Revenue and operating profit are up at PUBG maker Krafton, reports gamesindustry.biz. Full year revenue is up 42% YoY to $1.85bn, while operating profits was $826m, up YoY by 54%.
Krafton attributed the success to the continued strength of PUBG and in particular the growth of Battlegrounds Mobile India.
Square Enix mobile/browser sales stumble
Japanese giant Square Enix has posted a drop in sales and profit for its first three quarters ended on December 31 2024.
The company’s mobile and PC browser sub-segment saw net sales decline 27.8% YoY to ¥56.3bn ($370m), while its operating income fell 58.5% to ¥5.6bn ($36.8m).
Sales for its digital entertainment division were down 10.7% YoY to ¥160.3bn ($1.05bn). Company-wide sales fell 3.5% YoY to ¥248.5bn ($1.63bn) during the nine-month period, while operating income dropped 4.6% to ¥33.3bn ($218.8m).
Apptica says IAPs hit $47bn, installs reached 58bn in 2024
Apptica has released a new report looking at the state of the mobile market in 2024. Among its key findings, the mobile gaming market saw IAP revenue grow 3.66% year-over-year to reach $47bn.
The top three countries for IAP revenue were the USA, China and Japan, which collectively accounted for 58.5% of the total.
Some leading countries experienced IAP declines, including China (-0.26%) and Japan (-11.39%), while the biggest growth was seen in Malaysia (+18.43%), Singapore (+18.08%) and France (+12.86%).
Mobile game downloads were also up globally in 2024, rising 2.1% YoY to 58bn. India led the way with 8.91bn installs (+0.68%), followed by Brazil with 6.2bn (+0.98%) and the USA with 5.23bn (+0.77%).
The top 15 markets all recorded YoY download growth, led by Pakistan (+7.14%), Italy (+3.77%) and China (+3.43%).
The highest grossing game category last year was RPGs. The genre generated $2.02bn in China (22.62% of the global RPG total), followed by Japan with $1.9bn (21.28% market share) and the US with $1.22bn (13.66%).
Strategy games earned $1.77bn (27.92% share) in the US, ahead of China with $896.1m (14.13%) and Japan with $715.9m (11.29%).
China led action game IAP with $1.44bn (26.67%), followed by the US with $915.2m (16.95%) and Japan with $702.8m (13.01%).
India topped downloads in several game categories in 2024. It saw 1.35bn action game installs (16.19% share), ahead of Brazil with 891.5m and the US with 692.8m. It also led the way in casual game downloads with 1.29bn (14.4% share), followed by Brazil with 847.8m and the US with 840.1m. India also topped simulation game installs with 1.13bn (13.95%), followed by Brazil with 937.7m and the US with 651.5m.
iOS was the top-grossing platform last year. Core titles were most profitable on both iOS and Android, generating $21.8bn on the former and $10.56bn on the latter.
Casual game IAP hit $13.1bn on iOS and $7.95bn on Android. Hybridcasual revenue reached $1.23bn on Apple’s marketplace and $779m on Google’s; hypercasual games generated $216m on the App Store and $106m on Google Play.
Google Play saw more installs across all sub-genres. This included 24.39bn casual game downloads, versus 4.1bn on iOS, and 12.4bn core game installs, compared to 2.1bn on the App Store. Hypercasual game downloads totalled 10.4bn on Android (-13.8% year-over-year) and 1.2bn on iOS (-22.73%). Hybridcasual downloads totalled 1.6bn on Google Play and 338m on the App Store.
The highest-grossing (IAP) titles on the App Store in 2024 were Honor of Kings ($1.72bn), Monopoly Go ($1.1bn) and Roblox ($818m). The leading Google Play apps were Monopoly Go ($654.5m), Royal Match ($533.5m) and Last War: Survival Game ($523.4m).
In terms of downloads, Roblox (252m) led the way on Android, followed by Free Fire x Naruto Shippuden (217m) and Free Fire Max (181m). On iOS, the most downloaded title was Block Blast (82m), ahead of Roblox (55m) and Brawl Stars (41.9m).
Roblox had the highest number of DAU across both platforms, with 97m on Android and 39m on iOS.
Free Fire Max (42m) and Ludo King (35m) took the next two spots on Google Play, while Honor of Kings (27.5m) and PUBG (26m) had the second and third highest DAU on the App Store.
Adjust breaks down install and game session trends
AppLovin-owned Adjust has released its annual mobile app trends report, which found that global gaming app installs rose by 4% YoY in 2024, while sessions dipped by 0.6%.
LATAM and MENA drove the growth last year, with app installs up 8% and 10%, and sessions rising 7% and 5%, respectively.
The biggest declines were in North America, where installs dropped 11% and sessions fell 14%. In Europe, installs fell by 1% and sessions dropped by 6%.
Hypercasual dominated app installs last year with 27% of the total, plus 11% of overall sessions. Puzzle and hybridcasual games each accounted for 11% of total installs, and for 11% and 7% of sessions, respectively. Action games drove 10% of installs and the highest share of sessions at 21%.
The strategy genre saw app installs leap 83% YoY, while session growth was up 17%. Casino and arcade apps recorded notable session growth of 32% and 23% respectively, but casino installs dropped 4% while arcade installs rose 6%.
Hypercasual and hybridcasual both saw installs grow 14%, while sessions were up 18% and 16%, respectively.
The average gaming app session duration globally rose from 30.35 minutes in 2023 to 30.75 minutes last year. APAC had the highest session length again at 34.84 minutes. MENA and Europe session lengths experienced growth, while North America and LATAM saw slight falls.
Day one retention rates for all games fell from 28% in 2023 to 27% last year. Day seven retention remained at 13%, day 14 saw a dip from 9% to 8%, and day 30 was unchanged at 5%.
The median CPI for gaming apps fell from $0.38 in 2023 to $0.36 last year. Casino apps CPI rose from $1.17 to $1.5 due to increased competition, and hypercasual games grew from $0.33 to $0.4.
Appmagic dives deep into the Western casual games market
The Tier 1 western casual gaming market grew by 11.7% YoY in 2024, says Appmagic’s latest report. Downloads increased YoY by a modest 4.1%, says the data firm, which also estimates that the casual market is worth $15.2bn in IAP revenue alone.
Most of the growth in match 3 came down to Royal Match, says Appmagic, which says the tier 1 western casual game market would have shrunk without Dream Games’ flagship title.
It also noted five notable new contenders to watch in this space: Truck Star (Century), Hollywood Crush (Yotta), Ellen’s Garden Restoration (Storm8), Christmas Match: Home Design (Narcade) and Roomscapes (Playrix).
In merge, Appmagic noted that genre leader Merge Mansion is flat, and facing competition from newer contenders Travel Town, Gossip Harbor and Seaside Escape.
Appmagic notes a similar trend in match 3D, where previous genre leader Triple Match 3D facing increased competition from newer rivals, in particular Zynga’s Match Factory.
